4 PECULIARITIES OF CLIMATE 



which I heard him himself relate. What think 

 you induced him to take up his abode here? 

 You may suppose it was the surpassing beauty 

 of its scenery. No such thing ; none of those 

 poetical elements which he so finely describes 

 in his poem, written on the banks of the Wye, 

 tempted him ; or in these other lines, 



u Clouds, mists, streams, watery rocks and emerald turf, 

 Bare hills and valleys full of caverns, rocks, 

 And audible seclusions, dashing lakes, 

 Echoes and water-falls and pointed crags, 

 That into music touch the passing wind." 



No, it was none of these, but the dry, clean 

 roads, so favourable for walking exercise. Pray 

 remember how different this district would be 3 

 were it not so amply supplied with rain. It 

 would no longer be a lake district ; no longer a 

 pastoral district: desolation would take the 

 place of fertility ; a repulsive, arid aspect the 

 place of the attractive verdant covering now so 

 delightful. Even as it is, we have rather to 

 complain of times of drought, to which the 

 country is subject, than to excess of rain ; a 

 drought of three or four weeks, drying up our 

 springs and almost our streams, withering and 

 arresting the growth of our pastures, as un- 



